This class allowed me to take a step back and remind myself of the reasons I am seeking education in my chosen fields. I came into the class as a hesitant writer; I always doubted my ability to be concise and well-organized in my writing. I grew to enjoy creative writing throughout grade school and I also enjoy the structure that academic writing provides. However, I find that developing ideas and arguing them has always been difficult for me. Because of this, I took these projects as opportunities to have clear goals in mind and then use the pieces of writing as strategies to convey these goals. In completing these projects, I revealed to myself that there is an inherent connection between music and linguistics and this is why I am so drawn to both. These projects have allowed me to reflect on where I want to be in the future and the types of work that I enjoy. I was able to be creative with the first project and reflect on my journey. I was able to extend this creativity to a more mechanical context and use a tool called a spectrogram for my public-facing project in the class. I was able to utilize an alternative approach to communication by incorporating a visual element in my public-facing project. In this way, I hoped to translate the underlying connection between music and language and communicate it in a way that was engaging to the audience. Sound is something that we experience every day but it seems somewhat elusive in nature—one can listen to the same song numerous times and still hear new things each time. However, by introducing this visual aspect, I concretized the relationship that music and language have and was able to explain what makes both of these things dynamic and possible. In the pieces of writing I chose for this portfolio, I share how I grew up fearful of expressing myself authentically and allowing myself to fully enjoy my favorite things. One thing I learned by reflecting back on my writing from this semester as well as my First-Year Writing pieces, I realize that what you love and what you feel deep down will always find its way out, so it’s important not to let fear discourage you from going for what you love from the start. However, this is something that everyone goes through in their own way and it is the thing that connects us all. Through art and writing we are able to connect on the basis of this constant struggle and find ourselves through community. Like writing, there will always be many opportunities in life to come up with different ideas, try new things, workshop your plans with others, and learn from other people.